Located just six miles from busy Basingstoke lies a very special ancient woodland. With a unique mix of soil type and 300-year-old oak trees, Pamber Forest Nature Reserve contains an astonishing array of flora and fauna.

Pamber Forest Nature Reserve has a rich history. As a part of the Forest of Windsor, it was a playground for the royals’ favourite pastime of deerstalking. Traditional management practices, such as coppicing, have also heavily influenced the landscape of this ancient woodland.

Coppicing is a traditional form of woodland management, which was originally conceived to create a variety of small woodland products. These were typically used for hurdle making (moveable wooden fence panels used to section off areas for grazing animals) and thatching spas (for thatching roofs).

Pamber Forest was particularly known for producing high quality materials. The raw product was sent up to the potteries in Stoke via canals, where it was made into crates, which were then used to safely export pottery around the world.

With the onset of the industrial revolution, the need for these materials decreased and so coppicing also declined - the last commercial coppicing took place at Pamber in 1963. This led to a huge loss of wildlife, as many species had adapted to thrive in this form of woodland management. Notably several woodland butterfly species, which prefer open space, declined in numbers.

In 1991, Graham Dennis became reserves officer for Pamber and instigated a coppice restoration project, as the Purple emperor Forest had become very shady. The initial work involved felling a lot of the oak trees to create the open canopy. This work was done in conjunction with Englefield Estate, who own the Forest.

We have carried on this cyclical cutting of the coppice ever since. Pamber’s rotation of coppicing now takes place on a ten to 12-year cycle. Every winter, volunteer groups meet every week, completing around 2ha of coppice between September and the end of March. So, if you visit during autumn and winter you can expect to see these coppiced log heaps in the stream valley areas of the reserve.

Connectivity

Pamber Forest also features an open ride system. This involves creating open connected spaces so that wildlife can travel from one coppiced area to another. Each year, ride edge coppicing, which involves mowing the edges, takes place. This encourages wildflowers to grow along the edges of the open sunny rides, which in turn provides vital nectar and food sources for a variety of species such as caterpillars.

Trees of Pamber

The vast majority of Pamber’s trees are oak, followed by birch and holly. This is due to the reserve’s acidic soil. Maple trees can also be found in the more neutral stream valleys, alders and willows also prefer this wet ground. The few ash trees, which prefer a lime rich ground, can also be found in the stream valleys.

The ancient trees provide a huge diversity of habitats. In the top canopy, you will find purple hairstreak and purple emperor butterflies. Graham usually only sees one or two purple emperors a year but this year, for the first time in 32 years, he discovered five just on one transect. Gall forming insects such as oak apple, oak marble and spangle galls also live at the top, while the lower canopies attract species which prefer more shade. A prominent feature of Pamber’s old trees are the various cavities, hollows and holes, which provide important habitats for a range of invertebrates.

The reserve also contains several ancient woodland tree indicator species including wild service tree, crab apple and white beam.

Rich mosaic of habitats

Pamber’s open woodland area is managed by a hefted herd of Dexter cattle. Their year-round grazing keeps the vegetation short which helps support an assortment of ground flora. Their dung attracts some of nature’s most well-known scavengers – dung beetles and flies, which in turn attracts other small predators, thus helping expand the reserve’s biodiversity.

The reserve’s heathland habitat can be found at the highest part of the forest. Here, the acidic, sandy and gravelly ground provides the perfect conditions for acidic loving plants and shrubs such as heather and bilberry. Bilberry is commonly found on the Moors in northern and western Britain. The south is generally considered too warm. However, the shrub is abundant on the heathland, and has performed incredibly well this year due to the unseasonal damp conditions. The Bilberry pug moth, as its name suggests, is reliant on the shrub. The larvae hide in leaves of the bilberry during the day, coming out at night to feed.

The reserve’s ponds and two contrasting streams support a wide variety of wildlife. Silchester Brook runs all year round whilst Honeymill Brook is an ephemeral stream. Pamber is one of only five sites in the UK where Ironoquia dubia, a rare species of caddis fly, has been found. Its larvae was last recorded in 1969 and despite investigations in the years since, it wasn’t until 2018 when a single male was eventually caught in a light trap in the bed of the dried up steam. It requires a very specific habitat of an acidic woodland stream which dries up.

Warm, damp weather triggers early fungi

Pamber experienced a constant abundance of fungi this summer. This is very unusual and is due to the damp conditions experienced in July, August, and September.

There are possibly over 1,000 species of fungi at the reserve. With many existing underground for several years, you never know which you may stumble across. The rare violet webcap came up in profusion for just one year but has never been seen since. It’s most certainly still here, just biding its time until it reappears above ground again.

Pamber’s moths

Moths have always been very well documented at Pamber. In Victorian times, entomologists came to the Forest on the train from London specifically to study the moths. Almost certainly you will find specimens from Pamber Forest in collections around the UK, including in the British Museum.

Moths are Graham’s speciality, and with around 850 species at Pamber there are plenty to keep him occupied. Graham is noticing changes to the moth population, perhaps due to a warming climate. Light and dark crimson underwings are becoming more common. The last record of a light crimson, until recently, was in 1965.

It has been a record-breaking year for the coppice specialist moth, the drab looper. This day-flying moth prefers sunny glades where its larvae feed on wood spurge, an ancient woodland indicator species. Typically, the team would count 12 to 15 per year, but this year there were more than 60.

Upper Inhams Copse, to the east of Pamber Forest, was bought by the Trust in 2001, following a gift in the Will of Gwen Talmey. Gwen made the gift in memory of her parents, and was particularly keen that the area purchased included woodland. Adding to Pamber Forest Nature Reserve was the perfect choice and we are incredibly grateful to Gwen for allowing us to secure this site for wildlife.

Pamber Forest is owned by Englefield Estate and leased to Basingstoke & Deane Council. Since 1997, the Council have supported and funded the Trust to manage the reserve on their behalf. The two reserves are now managed in tandem, to maximise the benefits to wildlife.